DVD Jeg er din

Pakistani-Norwegian screenwriter, actress and director Iram Haq's feature film debut which she wrote, is somewhat inspired by personal experiences. It premiered in Norway, was screened in the Feature Films section at the 55th Nordic Film Days Lübeck in 2013, in the Discovery section at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, was shot on location in Oslo, Norway and Stockholm, Sweden and is a Norwegian production which was produced by Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd. It tells the story about a twenty-seven-year-old aspiring Norwegian actress from Pakistan named Mina who lives in an apartment in the capital city of Norway with her six-year-old son named Felix whom she has shared custody of. Mina is searching for something which she is looking to find in a man, and when she one day after having attended a casting audition is approached by a Swedish screenwriter and director named Jesper who lives in the capital city of Sweden, she thinks she might have found it.

Distinctly and finely directed by Norwegian filmmaker Iram Haq, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws an authentic and increasingly heartrending portrayal of a single mother whom after getting herself a boyfriend begins balancing her attention, an adolescent son who naturally becomes found of the new man in his mothers' life and begins worrying that her love for him has changed and a Swedish man who becomes somewhat hesitant when he gets a feeling of family life and is regarded as a potential father-figure. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, reverent and low-keyed cinematography by Polish cinematographer Marek Septimus Wieser and Norwegian cinematographer Cecilie Semec, production design by Norwegian production designer Ann Kristin Talleraas and fine costume design by costume designer Ida Toft, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about the combination of self-realization and motherhood where a person who although being criticized by her family who thinks she should marry a man they regard as appropriate, stands her ground and follows her ambitions, depicts a courageously internal and reflective study of character and contains a great and timely score by composer Even Vaa.

This warmly humorous, eloquently understated and modestly romantic indie which is set mostly in Oslo, Norway in the 21st century, which has been chosen as Norway's official submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014 and where a woman who is what she is and does what she does isn't really appreciated by anyone except her only child, gradually notices that her ambitions is overshadowing the single and most valuable being in her life, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, poignant instrumental tones, distinct realism, scenes between Mina and Felix, comment by, in this case, a man : "We can be friends, right?", the prominent and reverent acting performance by Norwegian actress Amrita Acharia and the fine acting performances by Swedish actor Ola Rapace and Pakistani-Norwegian actor Assad Siddique. A humane, incisive and unorthodox Norwegian drama.

Jeg er din (I am yours) is Iram Haq's debut film. The Pakistani-Norwegian actor has been an actor on stage as well as in feature TV-films as well as cinema released films. The film is of course highly fluster by Haq's Pakistani upbringing, which makes sure this film is quite realistically in the storytelling. The film was chosen for several film festivals, and also Norwegian candidate for Oscars in 2014.

Mina is a young Norwegian Pakistani freelance actor and single mother living in Oslo with her 6 year old son Felix, and has a troubled relationship to her family. The mother is nagging her, and the rest if the family has difficult to understand she is still single, though they have tried to marry her away. She is looking for love and has relations to different men, as short real actions. Then Mina meets the Swedish film Jesper maker during a film festival in Oslo, she falls head over heals in love. But things doesn't turn out the way she hopes.

It an OK film, but due to the great overall quality to most Norwegian films recently, I must admit I had high hopes to this, as well. It's OK, but nothing more. I've read that the film is unconventional, but I can't say I got that feeling while watching. Maybe it's unconventional coming from a director with a Pakistani upbringing. When she is at casting interviews we see everything thee the eyes if the interviewers, and never get to see their faces. The film has a meta perspective, as both Mina and the film maker Jesper involves the film aspect of their every day life from time to time. A homage made to the animation film The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (Flåklypa Grand Prix) is a part of this during their meeting conversation.

Amrita Zachariah does a great role as Mina, in a fictional take, though loosely based upon the directors own experiences. Hand held camera, though not annoying. The film is maybe not filmed with a green filter, though it feels a gloomy dominated by a kind of green and blue. I'd like the film to have a more vibrant color pallet for my taste, especially because thus is a multicultural story. It's not obvious to my why this is worthy a nomination, since there where far more interesting films made that could have been better contenders. The acting is good, but the film is slow, and maybe even a big boring at times. This is when the film loses pace, which happens every 10 minutes. Therefore this will probably not be to everybody's liking.

It's an every day story about the difficulty in being brought up in two so diverse cultures, and about having different expectations to what life and relations are to be. Expectations from family and her kids father is difficult to combine with her life as an actor and her expectations to find love around the next corner. What she finds us more if the same. The most interesting parts of the film is the ones with the family. The tension runs high. A well depicted every day story, but when we from time to time feel tension rids, it's over in the next moment. Maybe more true to real life, bug still not the way to make everyone drawn into the film. I'm sorry to say that the film failed to make me very engaged in Mina's life, despite the character building and great acting.